It was like a breath of fresh air when Amarillo College launched its Respiratory Care Program back in 1972.

Prior to the program’s inception, the city of Amarillo’s four dynamic hospitals had been compelled to recruit and import trained respiratory therapists from well beyond their service area.

But in 1972, the city’s first respiratory therapist, Gary Gerard, who had been recruited to Amarillo from New Mexico four years previously, joined with Dr. Ted Nicklaus and Bill Young to develop the program at AC.